Thesis Statement:
Oil spills are deadly and dangerous, and can greatly harm the ecosystem, so we must endeavor to reform current drilling practices and regulations in order to try and prevent future spills.
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A. Introduction:
Oil spills can be very harmful to ocean creatures, such as fish and shellfish, birds, and mammals like sea otters. There are many causes for oil spills, and there are different ways that they can be cleaned up. However, we should also try to prevent future spills from happening, and some of the responsibility for it lies with the government.
B. Cause:
Oil spills are the result of drilling in the ocean to find oil. When there are mechanical failures, operational errors, or natural disasters, it can cause the piping or the drills or tankers to break, and spill oil.
C. Events:
In particular, oil destroys the insulating ability that ocean mammals with fur coats have, and the ability for birds’ feathers to repel water. This can cause the animals to drown or suffer from hyperthermia. In addition, many animals will swallow the oil, which can make them sick. Hundreds and even thousands of animals have died because of oil spills. In turn, this has caused damage to the ecosystems that can take many years to recover, if it ever recovers at all.
D. Conclusion: We Must Continue to Evolve:
There are ways to clean up and prevent oil spills, and the government can be a big help with all of them. Cleaning up oil spills can involve volunteers or the government, depending upon the size and source of the spill, and who is ultimately needed. There are several tools that can be used to clean up the oil as well, such as: booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants, and so on. When it comes to preventing future spills, laws have been passed to increase regulation on oil rigs, so as to decrease human error, protect from storms, and any other potential accidents. This is partly in response to the BP oil spill from a few years ago. At the time, many felt that the government did not hold the company rightfully responsible, and that they did not act quickly enough. We must continue to evolve our laws and regulations when it comes to drilling for oil in order to prevent spills in the future.
Tentative Sources:
1. Greed Fudge, a website dedicated to environmental news. In this article, it details how oil spills can be prevented in the future, as well as how devastating they can be to the ecosystem. I accessed this page on September 25th, 2014. http://www.greenfudge.org/2013/05/04/how-can-future-oil-spills-be-prevented/
2. Office of Response and Restoration website, where they describe how oil spills happen, as well as cleanup methods. I first accessed this pate on September 25th, 2014. http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/training-and-education/education-students-and-teachers/how-do-spills-happen.html
3. NPR, or the National Public Radio. There is a transcript of an interview with several different people about the BP oil spill in 2010. In this transcript they talk specifically about the government’s role in the cleanup, prevention, and the spill itself. I accessed this page on September 25th, 2014. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127114635
